Fire evacuation systems have been used in the past to assist people attempting to exit a building during a fire by giving the appropriate directions toward a safe exit nearest to those persons. In a typical public building, a smoke detector can trigger an audible fire alarm which makes the occupants aware of a problem. As these people attempt to escape from the building, they typically look for EXIT signs which direct these people to stairwells or doors that lead to the outside, away from the building. Unfortunately, once smoke starts filling the area that people are attempting to move through, an EXIT sign at the end of a hallway or corridor can become difficult or impossible to see through moderately thick smoke. Such moderately thick smoke may still be breathable, however, if the person trying to escape from the building cannot determine which direction to go, that person may not be able to leave the building before being overcome by smoke inhalation.
An egress direction lighting system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,928, by Minter. Minter discloses the use of a plurality of indicator lights that have the appearance of arrows pointing in the proper direction for egressing from an area of a building during a fire. These indicator lights are sequenced to additionally aid in directing the people into the proper egress direction. Unfortunately, as smoke becomes thicker in the affected area, the sequencing lights used in Minter become less visible, in a similar fashion to EXIT lights used in most public buildings. To be effective, the person attempting to escape from the building must be near enough to a display panel that contains the sequencing lights disclosed in Minter.